Center for Fiduciary Management (CFFM)

Center for Fiduciary Management (CFFM) provides investment monitoring services for the retirement planning industry through its software-as-a-service (SaaS) suite of tools. CFFM’s challenges included frequent industry changes, innovations and regulatory events and fending off competitors who constantly challenge CFFM’s leadership position. In 2012, CFFM engaged Twentyseven Global to accelerate the growth of their product suite and maintain a competitive advantage through the development of best-in-class software.

Launching a New Project

CFFM initiated its partnership with Twentyseven Global on a project to develop a bid management tool called RFP Director. CFFM envisioned a tool which would enable advisors to efficiently assemble winning proposals for new clients and competitive bids for existing clients. A new product launch required a team that could quickly understand CFFM’s business. CFFM found this expertise in the Twentyseven Global team with their ability to drive process flow, design and technical decisions while minimizing the time required from the existing product owners and developers at CFFM. Successful completion of this project and subsequent launch of the RFP Director tool led CFFM to expand the partnership.

Extending the Software Delivery Capability

CFFM and Twentyseven Global expanded their partnership to focus on product and feature development, and a technology refresh of the core product. The partnership includes an ongoing core team of software developers and local consultants, software architects and quality assurance personnel. This core team provides continuity of knowledge and expertise, while enabling CFFM to flexibly ramp up and down the team by utilizing Twentyseven Global’s surge capacity.

Modernizing the Core Product and Revamping Architecture

Twentyseven Global embarked on parallel efforts to modernize the user interface (UI) of CFFM’s main product suite and update the software architecture from monolithic to a layered, service-oriented architecture based on microservices.

The new architecture allowed Twentyseven Global’s development team to create several new tools which extend or repackage the existing core product capabilities. For example, a new Identity and Access Management (IAM) service allows for easier integration with new clients and third party information providers. A reporting service allows new products to leverage a common solution rather than each product implementing its own report writer. A data analytics engine built on cubed data offers deeper insights to existing operational data.

Expanding the Range of Potential Clients

The partnership with Twentyseven Global has allowed CFFM to rapidly develop new products and expand their addressable market. With surge capacity and the new service-oriented architecture, CFFM can bring new products to market in a matter of weeks instead of months or years. This has helped CFFM retain their leadership position in the industry, where they continue to be viewed as one of the sector’s top innovators.